Sky Eater
by TheAUWalker
Summary: Maka does not want to grow up and live happy in the marketplace, she wants to be a sky pirate. There is nothing she can do to get herself off the floating city, but if she stays it will kill her. Maka's story and many others get sucked into an uprising that no one ever hoped to see, all on the rim of the Edge. Soul Eater/Edge Chronicles crossover.


**A/N: I absolutely adore the Edge series(and Soul Eater too x3) so this spawned...enjoy!**

**I don't own the Edge Chronicles or Soul Eater.**

**-o-o-o**

Maka leaned down to scratch her leg and banged the top of her head on the underside of the desk on the way back up, releasing a loud curse.

_"Sky above!"_

She was lucky, someone in another row coughed, but Maka still got a few glares. She rubbed the top of her ash-blonde head and winced, fingers tenderly stroking the forming bump. Maka straightened back up in her seat. She'd to be quiet if she wanted to stay in this class-it was for older kids, and the professor rotating on his floating stand did not tolerate chatter while he was talking.

Shibusen's advanced Crescent Moon classroom took a large scooped-out shape, the ceiling panels of glass and the lower half filled with amphitheater style-seating. Blood-red cushions seated the attending crowd of possibly two hundred, all eyes focused on the platform hovering in the center of the room and the man standing on it. They leaned forward on handsome wooden wraparound benches, quills scribbling. Through the glass one could see skyships floating on by, sinking and rising, rope ladders being rolled up and tossed down, people leaping on and off and occasionally a caterbird flying by.

Professor Sid was actually a major in Earth studies, but was here as a guest. Shibusen's students learnt much, professors and books being flown in from all over the world.

Maka Albarn was the only one of fifteen in this class. The rest were young twenties, maybe, a hodgepodge of librarians and pilots and whatever else wanted to get in for the lecture. Maka's father(even though she wished he would fall off the Edge) was of big influence at Shibusen and it helped that Maka was smart. So, she was given a special pass and allowed to attend whatever she pleased.

But it was hard, sometimes, not having any friends.

Since she was always around people of older age and better class that were leaving and coming some she saw once and never again. It was difficult to make friends if you didn't already have them. So she made friends with scrolls, and every time she entered the library it always gave her a nice tingly feeling. Maka was perfectly content to sit and read her scroll, but she wondered what it would be like to have someone to discuss it with.

-o-o-o

After a lecture, the halls were always busy. There was no real schedule for everything, nothing was coordinated. When the professors started, they started, and you could step in or out at any time. The halls were always crammed with people going this way and that, and if you weren't careful you could get trampled.

Maka liked Shibusen, she supposed.

Like the far away Sanctaphrax, it was a floating city, though much bigger. It was the center of learning, the largest in the whole world. In the center was the school, DWMA, and around it smaller training centers and libraries and sky ports and stables. Unlike Sanctaphrax's chain, Shibusen just floated along. It had a smaller honeycomb, and mostly just stayed in one place.

Maka's mother, Kami, had left when she was very small. Spirit's answer always changed to where she was. One minute it was Sanctaphrax, another the forest or the Mire or Undertown. Maka envied that her mother got to see so much of the world when she was stuck on the floating city.

Not that it wasn't badass.

Shibusen wasn't boring, not by any standards. You could read, listen to a lecture, shop, train, meet people from all over the world, or go take a run on a prowlgrin. Maka had her fair share of fun, just no one to share it with.

Spirit Albarn, her father, stayed close by Death's side. He had done much and even used to be a sky pirate, pilot of the_ Emerald Edge_. Maka never asked why he stopped-but she'd heard rumors that the ship he was on got caught and the crew was set to be executed unless they worked for Shibusen.

It was Maka's dream to leave this place. She loved it, desperately, but there was so much more out there. She wanted to see it herself, not have to settle for a scroll written by an exhilarated scribe much luckier than her.

But it was nearly impossible to leave.

In accordance with a threat a while ago, every ship leaving or entering a port was thoroughly searched. She wouldn't be able to get a lift-you needed papers and passes for that, and in reality she would never get them. Just wanting to leave wouldn't get her anywhere.

Maka was a girl, she couldn't go to Knight school.

So she spent her days in the library or amusing herself in one of Shibusen's large markets, with the incredibly load roar of people's conversations and barters.

-o-o

"'Scuse me!"

Maka was roughly pushed aside and almost face-planted into a cart of juicy and ripe dellberries. She apologized to the vendor, a large woodtroll wearing an apron and brandishing a wooden spoon, and melted back into the crowd.

Her eyes were drawn to the commotion a few feet away. The person who'd pushed her was flat on his back, fingers gripping the cobblestones as a sharp sword pointed at his throat. It was only a boy, about Maka's age, and his offender was a large, lumpy shryke.

The crowd around them went quiet, no one daring to approach the angry creature. Shrykes were vicious creatures, and anyone daring to question them would be silenced without a second's warning. Maka felt bad for the poor boy, obviously terrified.

"You _dare _steal from me?"

The shriek was high and unpleasant, like nails on a chalkboard. The busy stalls and people seemed to go on like nothing was happening. Of course, because no one would be idiotic enough to interfere.

"I swear to Sky, I'm only trying to feed my family. Please, have mercy!"

The brown paper bag, filled to bursting with glimmer-onions, loafsap, sallowdrop and woodmint lay on the ground, its contents scattered around. No one dared pick it up.

"What's going on over here?"

A man pushed through the crowd, striding forward with his hand on his sword hilt. He had shocking white hair and dark red eyes, dressed in captain's clothes. Regal, Maka observed, fancy, so he wasn't a pirate. He claimed striking features and a tall height, a muscular build and an impressive hat.

"The boy's mine!"

"Now, ma'am, I'm sure this can be worked out-"

"_MINE!"_

The sword was plunged towards the captain in a wickedly fast strike. The man jumped aside and drew his own blade, standing over the boy.

"I'd advise you to not steal from a shryke again, and to run."

He scrambled away, leaving the food behind.

"I am Wes Evans, captain of the_ Evan's Edge_, and I would recommend you drop the matter. Your food is all here, I apologize for the boy's mistake."

The shryke hesitated, but it was obvious she knew the name. Without another word the creature slunk away, and the crowd dispersed.

"Now, then."

Wes knelt, picking up the loafsap and squeezing it gently.

"Soul!"

A smaller version of Wes came out of the crowd, about Maka's age, with the same white hair and red eyes. He wore a double-breasted coat and an expensive watch dangled from his belt, a hefty sack of gold tied next to his pocket. But Maka noticed that when Soul smiled, his teeth were sharp.

The two gathered up the food and Soul hoisted the bag without a word.

"Are you pirates?"

It had blurted out of her mouth before she could stop and two pairs of eyes swung in her direction.

Wes tipped his hat.

"In my spare time, little lady."

"What do you do in your regular time?" Maka shot back.

"Diplomatic relations."

"Wes." Soul muttered.

"Alas, I hear the waifs calling. Lovely talking to you."

He spun on his heel and melted into the crowd with Soul, a cheerful grin the last thing Maka saw.

-o-o

Maka was never the same.

When she got home she stared at the bags under her eyes, how pale her skin had become.

The wanderlust was taking over. Seeing those pirates, so free, it tore her apart. Maka wanted to run after them and follow them off this damned city, even though she'd never make it out of port.

Evening was beautiful at Shibusen. Paper lanterns were lit all along the city and torches raised, evening games played in the streets and soft music drifting along like a breeze. Maka's usual habit was to sit in her room with her window open and draw or write or read, but tonight she was restless. She couldn't sit still.

This place was going to be her grave.

-o-o-o

Shibusen's marketplace was almost like Undertown, Maka heard, but a lot cleaner.

Just walking around she heard talk in all languages and all forms, of animals and trading and dangerous words. She heard about skyships and the Edge and Maka did love her lectures, but she got her real, useful knowledge off the street.

The blonde passed by a small group consisting of a teenage boy and most likely his parents. They were all smiling and the father clapped the son on the back.

"Congratulations, Hiro, my little shokunin!"

Shokunin.

Maka'd heard that word around about a thousand times every day. There were different ways to say it, yes, but it all meant the same thing.

You commanded the ship.

Captain, pirate, shokunin, meister. You gave the orders and no one just decided that they'd like to be a captain, you were chosen. It was in your genes, could be completely random or expected. There were people in the city that could somehow tell if you were a captain, but the ragged way of deciding these days was to give a newbie a skycraft and see if he could fly the thing without any training. It came in the blood, the natural urge to see the skies. There were bukis, too, that were the pilots of a ship. There were legends of a few great pirates that only had two people on the ship-a pilot and a captain. The pilot was essential, but one could not go without the other-someone to fly the ship, and someone to command it.

Maka wondered which she was, or if she was even one at all.

She had a small chance that she might've inherited something-her mother, Kami, was a legendary shokunin working for Shibusen, and her father had been a pilot. But the majority of the world were just sort of there, set to become librarians or scribes or traders.

The life Maka wanted took place in the sky, not on the ground. It had been her wish ever since she was little that she could grow up to be on her own ship, to be able to fly all over the world and handpick her crew.

But the reality was just that it would never happen.

-o-o-o

Maka Albarn had a week-old secret.

Seven days ago she was simply getting in the shower, nothing unorthodox. Maka loved the traditional showers-made out of a pale stone flecked with gray, large and spacious with a window covered by a slightly transparent skin and fresh water right from the well. It gave her time to think, alone time.

After an hour(it had been a long, long day) Maka shut off the water and wrapped her thin body in a towel, standing in place for a few minutes while beads of water rolled down her nose.

Something dark and small sagged in the corner.

Maka stepped over to it and bent down, one hand securing the towel around her chest. It was a piece of cloth, bundled up, green with white stripes. Maka unfolded it and shook it out, noting that it was a bandana smelling strongly of women's perfume.

Probably belonged to one of her father's guests.

For some strange reason Maka did not want to give it back. She didn't want to hand it over to her father. Past the perfume there was a smell of sky. Maka inhaled deeply, closing her eyes as the fresh scent filled her nostrils.

Later, Maka shoved the cloth under her mattress.

Her room was quite nice, actually, a giant round window covered by a slowly rotating windmill on the left. She had her bathroom in the hallway and everything was neat and prim and large, everything that a cabin on a skyship was not.

Maka put her face in her hands.

This city was beautiful, she loved it and despite all its flaws her father, too, but it was killing her. She needed to get out, and if she died trying, she didn't really have anything to lose.

There was not much for her to come back to, not much for her to leave behind.

But she needed a way to get off the city without being sent back home. Security was tight and there was a small chance she could escape if she found the right captain, the right crew, the right ship with the right hiding places.

_Happy ever after in the marketplace_

The singers started up, high and low voices swelling up and filling the marketplace. They would walk around for the rest of the evening, taking tips and making people smile.

Maka stared out her window at the minstrels and jugglers.

Her life was not going to end happily ever after if she did not get out.

-o-o

**A/N: I know for most of you that was probably confusing as hell with all the foreign terms in it from the Edge Chronicles, but I'll do my best to do a little explanation at the end of each chapter if there's new terms. If you have any questions, feel free to ask :D I read this series a long time ago, so I apologize if I make a mistake referring to canon Edge history. The timeline will be off and there are not going to be many main Edge characters except for a few of the villains and professors.**

**Sky above****- A common swear. Since this world is based on the sky, there are a lot of references to it.**

**Skyships****- Imagine a pirate ship. Gut out the middle and place a giant, round boulder in the middle. Add smaller, looser sails. Place a tall house-like structure on the back end, and have a really tall mast. If you want to see, look up 'skyship edge' on Google, and it's like the first two.**

**Scrolls****- They didn't really have books, it was mainly paper scrolls glued onto bark and dubbed 'barkscrolls'.**

**Edge****- Sort of the literal 'end of the world', it's a giant cliff and once you fall down there it's a pretty rare chance that you'll get back up.**

**Sanctaphrax****- A giant, floating city secured with a huge chain. It's a center of learning in a not-so-clean place, and inside the bowels of the rock is a cave system.**

**Prowlgrin****- A type of animal. These are really difficult to describe, so I'd advise Googling 'prowlgrin', but my description is basically a giant ball of fur with two legs, two small arms, bulging eyes and a huge mouth. People ride them around or use them to pull carts.**

**Knight school****- It's what it sounds like-just a place where boys go to train to fight.**

**Woodtroll****- A docile species that lives in the forest.**

**Shryke****- In Greek mythology they have the Sirens, and Shrykes are pretty much like that. They are like giant vultures, with chronic bloodlust and a screechy voice.**

**Glimmer-onions, dellberries, loafsap, sallowdrop and woodmint****- All types of edible plants, except for loafsap, which is a bread.**

**Undertown****-It's around Sanctaphrax, and basically like the slums of a city. It has a huge market and lots of shady people.**

**Waifs- They come in all types and personalities, but Wes is referring to more docile ones that work on his ship.**

**Captains and pilots- These are two very, very different people, so I apologize if the line was blurred. A captain is the person who commands the ship and crew, and the pilot is the one that actually flies it. The ships float and rise by cause of the giant rock I mentioned earlier, the one in the middle of a ship. It's called the flight rock and simple science governs its laws-heating it makes it rise and cooling it down makes it sink. The pilot is the one who controls the rock's temperature and they are usually male, but in canon Edge there is a female rock pilot on one of the ships. No one finds out until much later because their outfit is like a hazmat suit.**

**I really love the Edge series, and am trying to find a library or a bookstore that has them so I can read them again. Right now my lifeline is the wiki(another place to go with your questions is there, just search 'Edge wiki' and it should pop up :) but I'm really enjoying writing this and plan to have almost every Soul Eater character crammed into this world, with tons of plot-twists and little tidbits of their pasts.**

**Please review! :D**

**Oh, also, the song at the end is called 'Obliadi Oblada' by The Beatles :)**


End file.
